Craig Bellamy returns to St James' Park today for the first time since he was aggressively shoehorned out of Newcastle United by the then manager Graeme Souness just over two years ago. It could be said there is some anticipation of the moment on Tyneside, the front-page headline in yesterday's Newcastle Evening Chronicle was: "Bellers is back in Toon."

Admittedly the back page read: "This game's not all about Craig return" but, when Bellamy emerges from the tunnel at St James', lenses will swivel from the Americans in the directors box to the Welshman in the red No17 shirt.

Unless Liverpool's manager, Rafael Benítez, chooses to leave Bellamy on the bench, 90 minutes of sometimes good-natured, but often not, banter will follow. Bellamy was an influential player for Newcastle under Sir Bobby Robson but his irascibility irked more than Souness.

Bellamy was given a taste of what he can expect from the Geordie hordes when Newcastle went to Anfield in September and his post-match altercation with Terry McDermott, backroom staff member under both Souness and Glenn Roeder, prompted McDermott to label Bellamy "an upstart".

This is an opinion of the 27-year-old striker shared by many Newcastle fans though they can also recall the galvanising effect Bellamy had alongside Alan Shearer. In Bellamy's three full seasons under Robson, Newcastle finished fourth, third and fifth. He departed for Celtic on loan in the transfer window of his fourth season, in January 2005, having accused Souness, on live television, of being "a liar".

That month also saw Bellamy's last appearance at St James', when he was replaced by James Milner against Southampton, for whom Peter Crouch scored. After Celtic, Bellamy moved to Blackburn but missed their visit to Newcastle last season. He then joined Liverpool for £6m last summer.

"I had some good years up there and really enjoyed my football," said Bellamy on Liverpool's club website. "I learned a lot about myself when I was a Newcastle player. I got involved in one or two things outside of football but I was lucky because the fans were always with me.

"Of course I'm not their player anymore and so I'll probably get a little bit of stick but I can accept that. I get stick from a lot of fans and people who don't know me but I can take it from Newcastle fans because they were so supportive when I played for them."

Benítez is hopeful that the 27-year-old will continue to channel his energy in the correct manner this afternoon. He said: "I will speak to Craig and we will talk, just in case, but I am not worried because he is a professional and his commitment in every game is good. I feel it will be the same this time and he doesn't need to do anything special. He just needs to score goals.

"We will talk about how he may be targeted because it has been mentioned by the media but I will tell him, if he wants to say something, the place for a player to do that is on the pitch."